Chapter Text
Tommy marched toward a group of people, pushing Tubbo in front of him. The group was huddled around a table, a nurse keeping an eye on them, but didn’t seem to be listening to their conversation.
“Bitches! This is Tubzo-”
“Tubbo.” He interrupted, though Tommy continued like he hadn’t heard anything.
“And he is my roommate!”
One of the kids sitting at the table looked up absentmindedly like he wasn’t really listening. “That’s great Tommy, do yo-” One of the people said, not really paying much attention till he actually looked up. “Oh! There’s a new person!”
“That’s what I said! Bitch!” Tommy scowled, wrinkling his nose and pushing Tubbo in front of him, like a prize.
Tubbo waved a bit, not really knowing what to say other than an awkward: “Hello?”
The kid stood up and Tubbo took a moment to actually look at him. He had on a worn sweater and PJ pants, and a beanie… For some reason. Maybe that was just his staple? So he could be remembered as ‘Beanie Kid’? It wasn’t like anyone here was going to be fashionable, they were all insane anyways. Tubbo didn’t really know, but he was the first to talk so he was the first one he noticed.
The only crazy-looking person here was Tommy, whose wide eyes and hyper figure left very little ‘sane’ vibes to be desired. He was sure that the others were some sort of serial killer bunch, psychopaths for sure.
“-bbo?”
Oh, someone was talking to him.
He blinked his eyes a few times to clear away the jumble of thoughts and smiled. “Sorry, wasn't paying attention. What did you say?”
A new voice showed up, this one was deep and belonged to someone with sunglasses. He was dressed in a simple white tee and, like the beanie kid, had on pj pants. He didn’t look crazy, well, a bit odd for wearing sunglasses inside, but not crazy.
Probably a serial killer. Tubbo reminded himself.
He had gotten distracted again, today was not a good day for focusing on things. However, he did manage to catch what the sunglasses guy had said.
“He asked what got you into this place?”
Tubbo’s hands moved to his sleeve, pulling at a loose thread. “Parent’s overreacted when I got stressed. That’s all, I’ll probably be out of here soon.” It wasn’t a lie, he was fine and once the people here realized it, they would send him home.
“So it’s your first time at one of these places?” Another different person. He had to be quicker with his observation, so he could still listen. Badly dyed pink hair with brown roots, loose pjs, glasses, and he looked tired. He was still talking. “They always think that it’s a mistake, when they first come. It’s almost never a mistake.”
Tubbo frowned, only for a second, before the smile returned to his face. He made sure it wasn’t a big smile, he didn’t want it to seem too fake. “I don’t really need to be here, don’t worry, I’ll be out soon.
There was a bit of awkward silence before the beanie kid spoke again. “Don’t mind Techno, he’s always grumpy.” Another pause. “I’m Wilbur, sunglasses over there is Eret, grumpy is Techno.”
Beanie kid- Wilbur took a moment to point at everyone who had already spoken before pointing at the quieter ones at the table.
The first one was an older-looking blond kid in a well-worn shirt that had what looked like a design of wings on the back, maybe a sports team? “That one’s Phil, he’s the brain cell.”
The next person he pointed to was a short woman with shoulder-length blond hair. She had a sympathetic smile on her face, she did look a bit scary though. Tubbo couldn’t put his finger on it. “Niki, she’s the sweetest person you’ll ever meet.”
“And Fundy, he’s basically a furry.” The last person at the table was an orangish brown-haired guy with a grey streak in the front of his hair, odd, but once again, not crazy.
Tubbo faintly heard a protest from Fundy about being a furry but didn’t really register it.
Nobody here looked crazy, they looked like a regular group of teenagers.
The only somewhat crazy one, Techno, just seemed tired and angry. Like a few kids, he had seen last year who took the SAT early and ran on coffee.
Tubbo’s mind was going at a hundred miles per hour and the people were still talking, but one of the nurses announced that it was breakfast time and ushered everyone out of the main room.
Everyone else talked as they walked to the cafeteria, cheering a bit when they arrived.
The cafeteria looked almost empty, even once every person had grabbed a tray and taken a seat, they only filled up one long table. The nurses weren’t eating and were sitting at a different table.
Tommy had made sure that Tubbo was sitting with the group from before, which was just out of the nurses' sight and if they talked quietly enough, hearing range as well.
Tubbo poked at the food, wrinkling his nose a bit as he took a bite. “This tastes a bit shit.” He muttered, getting met with a few laughs from the others. Good, if the nurses noticed him laughing with other people, they’d get him out sooner.
Fundy waved his plastic fork in the air, humming in agreement with Tubbo’s statement. “Yeah, you need to eat most of it or the nurses’ll notice, maybe put you on a food watch too.” He pointed at the other end of the table, where a gangly-looking kid with white framed glasses was nudging food around a plate. There were two other kids sitting by his side.
“That’s George, he’s been on food watch since his second day here. The kids sitting beside him are his friends. They basically imprinted on him the second he was carted in from the hospital.”
Fundy pointed at the two kids, one was in a neon green sweatshirt and the other in a white tee with a fire design on it. “Dream and Sapnap.”
Wilbur butted in, taking over again. He pointed at a brown-haired boy in a patchwork hoodie and vacant eyes. “That one next to Sapnap is Karl.”
Next, he pointed to a kid in a beanie next to Karl. “That’s Quackity. If Tommy’s talking about ‘Big Q’, then he’s talking about Quackity.”
Tubbo squinted his eyes, looking over the people pointed out and then back at the group. “Everyone here seems normal, for the most part.”
Eret laughed softly, a small smile on their lips. “Give it a day or two, you’ll see we’re the furthest from normal.”
Tubbo nodded at that, going back to poking and eating his food in silence. He decided to let his mind wander, no one would really notice, he was sure.
It was unfair that he was here.
He wasn’t supposed to be here!
It was stupid and everything was fucking stupid!
His hand tightened around his plastic fork, itching to just stab something with it.
Tubbo dropped the fork, letting it quietly clatter back onto the table. He didn’t want to get yelled at for breaking something, so he opted to hide his hands in his lap and squeeze.
He felt his shoulders relax as his fingernails dug into the soft flesh on his palm, no doubt leaving indents.
See, he was stable. Stable people didn’t break things out of nowhere and Tubbo set the fork down so he wouldn’t break it. A prime example of stablity.
This moment was just the moment that his brain decided to remind him of all the times when he was not very stable.
Remember that time when you sprained your ankle jumping from one abandoned boat to another?
Remember when you almost broke that person’s fingers when they tried to touch your pen?
Remember when you ate an entire family-size bag of crisps because you felt so empty that you would try anything to just feel something?
Remember when you socially isolated yourself for weeks just to see if anyone would notice?
Remember when you-
Yes, he did remember those moments, thank you brain. They all had perfectly reasonable explanations that he didn’t have to get into because everyone was leaving the cafeteria, thank you very much.
Tubbo stood up and followed everyone else's lead, placing the forks in a bin and the plates in another. They were all ushered out of the room and back to the first room by the nurses.
Tubbo must’ve looked lost because Tommy slowed down a bit to walk by him.
“We’ve got group therapy and shit in a minute or two. They’d usually split us off, but because there isn’t a lot of people here, we’ll go to the same room.” Tommy jerked his head toward a closed-door with light able to be seen through the small window.
“Why don’t we have more time in between?” Tubbo asked in a whisper, hands fiddling with the edge of his shirt.
“No idea, probably the shrink had other shit to do or somethin’.”
The two looked at the door for another minute before it opened, revealing a smiling woman who held open the door, beckoning for everyone to enter.
The energy in the room was awkward, at least for Tubbo. Everyone else seemed comfortable enough slipping into the room and sitting down in the uncomfortable-looking plastic chairs. A few people sent wary glances to the therapist, though she was probably just new.
There were a few more kids that Tubbo hadn’t noticed at breakfast, but other than that it was a pretty small group. It kinda felt like it was some sort of classroom.
Once everyone had been pushed into the room as well as a single nurse, someone locked the door from the outside. A safety measure, probably.
It took a minute for everyone to get situated, but once they did, the therapist began to speak. “Hello, I’m Dr. Baker and I don’t recognize all of your faces, so why don’t we go around and say our names, why we’re here, and… hmmm… what about our favorite smell?”
Dr. Baker smiled widely, it was hard to tell whether or not it was fake. “I’ll start, my name is Dr. Baker, I’m here to help you all, and my favorite smell is roses.” If a fucking smile emoticon could be expressed verbally, Tubbo was sure she would add it on after every sentence. She hasn’t stopped smiling. “Who’ll go next, what about you?” She pointed at Wilbur.
“I’m Wilbur, uh, I’d rather not say what got me in here, but my favorite smell is that smell after it rains.” He was stuttering a bit, obviously uncomfortable with the topic.
Dr. Baker’s smile turned tense at that, not pleased with the fact that not everyone was going along with her plan.
He poked Techno, who was sitting next to him and looked like he was half asleep. The boy startled awake and lightly smacked Wilbur’s hand away. “‘M Techno, don’t want to say, it’s none of your business. I don’t have a favorite smell. Phil, you go.” He mumbled out before closing his eyes and yawning, leaning his head against Phil’s shoulder.
The doctor’s eye twitched, clearing her throat. “Real names please.”
“Techno is my real name.” Techno grumbled, turning his face more into Phil’s shoulder.
“No it’s obviously-” She cut herself off, taking in a deep breath and turning to Phil.
Phil just frowned softly and pat Techno’s head as he did his introduction. “My name’s Phil, I’m with Techno, I don’t really think it’s any of your business. I like the smell of cinnamon apples though.”
Tubbo was sitting right next to Phil, which meant he was expected to go next. He didn’t say anything, didn’t really feel like it.
Dr. Baker cleared her throat, trying to prompt him to speak and when the silence only went on longer, she broke it. She looked down at her clipboard and flipped through a few papers. “Your name is Toby, right?”
Tubbo looked up, “It’s Tubbo.” and looked back down.
“Er, right, Toby-”
“It’s Tubbo.” He repeated hands clenched into fists in his lap.
“Yes, Tubbo,” she finally got it right. “Why aren’t you doing your introduction?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Well, why don’t you want to?”
“There isn’t some cryptic reason I just don’t want to.”
God this lady was annoying.
The doctor let out a loud sigh and shook her head. “Alright, well, this is Tubbo, I’m giving him one more chance to introduce himself before I do it for him.”
Tubbo, once again, said nothing.
“Fine, this is Tubbo. He’s here-”
Tommy scoffed, interrupting her. “God, you’re one of the worst shrinks here, who even let you in? I think Dr. R should be running this since you obviously aren’t qualified to be handling teens, let alone mentally fucked ones.” He drawled, voice cold.
Tubbo was honestly supprised by Tommy’s outburst, he didn’t think the other could produce something with that many big words… Then he felt bad for thinking that and shook his head, clearing it of the thoughts.
Someone started clapping as Dr Baker stumbled over her words, blinking like she couldn’t believe him.
“The audacity! Why you- Of course, I'm qualified- Who are you to say something like that? You insufferable brat!”
People continued to talk and faintly he heard them, but it was hard to focus over the loud rush of anger in his ears. How dare she talk to Tommy like that?!
He wanted to break something, he just wanted to hear a crunch, a crack, anything.
He wanted to break someone’s fingers, especially the stupid doctor.
Honestly, he would be fine if he didn’t even get to break the stupid doctor’s fingers, spraining them would be fine. He just wanted to hurt something.
Tubbo stood up, walking toward the doctor. “Hey big man, you’re kinda a dick and I’m not telling you shit, I don’t care who you are. I would say it like Tommy, but I think he worded it perfectly, piss off, would you?”
The doctor scuttled back, looking to the door and making a run for it, unlocking it with a click and leaving the door wide.
Tubbo scoffed, nose wrinkled.
Pathetic.
Everyone stood up and walked into the hall, with Tubbo and Tommy at the lead, walking to where the doctor was arguing with a person in a lab coat with doodles all over it.
“The kid threatened me! He should be in juvie! Not this hellhole! I can’t even believe I wanted to work here, all the kids are dangerous sociopaths!” Dr. Baker exclaimed, hands hitting the table she was standing at.
The other doctor just raised an eyebrow as they stood up, clapping their hands together with a closed eye smile. “First of all, I doubt he threatened you, he may be new, but it lists nowhere in his file that he ever had an outward problem with authority. I would also like the other children’s point of view on this event.”
They took a step closer to the stupid doctor. “Secondly, if you ever, and I mean ever call mentally unwell children sociopaths, let alone dangerous ones, I will see to it that you never get a job anywhere near here ever again.” Their tone was harsh and their smile obviously fake. “Now please, turn in your id, while you were complaining, I had the time to have someone print out your walking papers. I will not be giving you a recommendation to anyone.”
Dr. Baker scowled and turned on her heel, but not before slamming her id on the table.
All the patients started cheering and clapping, even Techno let out a whoop, though a tired one.
Tubbo smiled softly, but genuinely. He clapped a bit before collapsing into one of the sofas in the main room.